


Brains Require Oxygen

by argallel



Category: The Night Shift (TV 2014)
Genre: Asthma, Asthmatic TC, F/M, TC is an idiot, TC whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 23:50:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13728621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argallel/pseuds/argallel
Summary: “Okay, Tee, just try to relax.” Drew pulled the mask over TC’s head. “You really know how to make a night exciting.”TC's being an idiot, and thinks he can just ignore his asthma.





	Brains Require Oxygen

**Author's Note:**

> I've recently been watching The Night Shift, and as terrible as the medicine in the show is (non-surgeons reattaching a limb successfully in the ER???), I love to watch it, and can't wait for the final season to be on Netflix.
> 
> I've taken my favourite trope (hello, whump, my old friend) and applied it to TC, my favourite character in the show.

“17-year-old male with chest trauma after falling from a crane! Left lung puncture with flail chest, and possible intra-abdominal bleeding!”

“Bring him into trauma two!” Jordan ran after TC and the stretcher, swiping her hair back into a ponytail. That night in the ER had been fairly quiet so far, the wheelchair races only stopping after TC had been called out to tend to a teenager who had fallen from a crane whilst trying to plank. “Ultrasound!”

“I need a chest tray now.” TC stripped his flight doctor jacket off and threw it in the corner of the room before pulling on a new pair of gloves. He glanced at Jordan, then grabbed the scalpel off the chest tray and began the procedure. “Who ended up winning?”

She shook her head as she pressed the ultrasound wand into the patient’s abdomen. “Kenny and Shannon.” She paused. “Who paired them up?”

TC coughed. “Hey, we would have won if I hadn’t had to leave.” He looked away from his procedure briefly to flash her a smile.

Within minutes, Scott had taken the teenager into surgery to repair the damaged areas of the chest, and the bleeding in the abdomen that Jordan had found with the FAST scan. The room was littered with bloody gauze and empty medication wrappers.

“I’m going to go and help Scott,” TC said breathlessly as he headed towards the door. “Paul’s doing an appy, and I think Scott could use the extra hands.”

“Hold it right there, cowboy.” Jordan put her hand out to stop TC from leaving the trauma room. She watched and listen to him for a moment before giving him a look. “I can hear you wheezing. Sit down and take your inhaler.”

He stepped around her and out into the hall. “Stop mother-henning me! I’m fine!”

“TC!” Jordan ran out of the room into the hall. “TC, you’re not fine!” She turned around helplessly before she spotted Drew. “Drew, tell TC he’s being an idiot.”

“TC, you’re being an idiot!” Drew called out after TC, who had stopped down the hallway and was leaning against the wall. He turned to Jordan. “What did he do this time?”

Before she could answer, TC slid down the wall and sat down with a thump, coughing hoarsely.

“TC!” Jordan and Drew yelled at the same time as they both took off running down the hall towards him. Drew skidded to a stop on his knees beside TC, who was breathing very heavily. “Where’s your inhaler?”

“Jacket,” he wheezed. Feeling lightheaded, he put his head between his knees.

Jordan jumped up and ran towards the trauma room. She remembered seeing TC take off his jacket and toss it somewhere in the room before he gave the patient a chest tube. A nurse came running down the hall with an oxygen tank and mask.

“Okay, Tee, just try to relax.” Drew pulled the mask over TC’s head. “You really know how to make a night exciting.”

TC cracked a wan smile under the mask. His chest rose up and down rapidly, although he was passing very little air. He tried to speak. “Thought I… could…ride-” He was cut off from his attempts to speak by a glare from Drew.

“Come on, TC, you’re a doctor, you know how this kind of things works out.” He pulled his stethoscope off his neck. “And how many years have you had asthma? Sit up more. I’m listening to your lungs.” The bell of the stethoscope was cold, and TC managed a half-hearted swat at Drew when it was slid up his shirt. Drew frowned. “If you had enough air to talk, I’d bet with you on your oxygen stats.”

“Drew, incoming!”

Drew looked up just in time to catch a new inhaler thrown at him by Topher. The ER manager was locking the door to the med room.

“Okay, here we go.” Drew pushed the oxygen mask down off TC’s face and raised the inhaler to his lips. “Deep, steady breath.” He depressed the button on the inhaler and watched TC’s face closely. “And… another one,” he said as he used the inhaler again. “Okay, mask back on.”

TC coughed hoarsely as Drew slid the mask back up onto his face. Jordan came running back down the hall.

“I found it eventually,” she said hurriedly as she dropped down beside the pair. “Thank god Topher was on it, because it took me forever to find it hiding under the ventilator. It must have fallen out of your jacket pocket when you threw it on the ground.”

Drew shook his head and turned back to TC. “Breathe slowly.” He put back in the earpieces of his stethoscope and listened again to TC’s breathing. “Still not sounding great.”

TC let his head fall back against the wall. He went to remove the mask, but a glare from both Drew and Jordan was enough to make him rethink the move. “Just… need a minute,” he said breathlessly. “I’m fine.”

Jordan rolled her eyes. “Tee-”

“I’m fine,” he said a little more emphatically. He reached over and grabbed her hand. But before he could say anything else, his breath caught in his throat and he began to cough harshly, back arching convulsively.

“Tee,” Jordan murmured, squeezing his hand.

Ten seconds passed with TC coughing, and Drew began to get worried. “Try and relax, TC.” He grabbed onto TC’s arm and checked his heart rate with a worried glance at Jordan. “Come one, take a steady breath.” He turned up the oxygen on the tank.

Then, still coughing, TC slumped sideways.

“TC!” Jordan yelled.

“Topher, I need you!” Drew called down the hallway. “Kenny, set up a bronchodilator in trauma one! I want IV access and corticosteroids!”

Jordan adjusted the oxygen mask as Topher came running down the hallway towards them “He’s had two doses of Ventolin and the oxygen is open full.”

TC was partially conscious, still coughing weakly, his lips turning a shade of blue. He pushed away weakly when Drew and Topher slid their arms around him to pick him up.

“Come on, TC, don’t fight us,” Drew said. “Try and take deep breaths. We’re gonna set you up with a bronchodilator.”

The pair carried TC down into Trauma one, Jordan right behind them with the oxygen tank. As soon as TC was placed down on the stretcher, a flurry of action started.

“Kenny, get that IV in now!” Drew called as he removed the oxygen mask off TC and pressed the spacer for the bronchodilator over his face. “Okay, Tee, breath deeply, you’re gonna be just fine.” He frowned as TC tried to roll his head out of the way of the spacer. Drew moved the mask to keep it on TC’s face, but TC tried to move out of the way again. “Jordan, can you keep him still?”

Jordan clipped a pulse-ox on TC’s finger and plugged it into the nearby monitor before stepping over beside Drew. “Tee, come one, you need the meds. Relax, okay?” She put her hand on his head, partially to try and relax him, and partially to stop his head from moving if he tried again.

This time, when Drew pressed the spacer on TC’s face, he didn’t move, just grimaced weakly.

Topher sighed as he stared at the monitor relaying TC’s stats. “Oxygen levels are coming back up. Steroids are in?”

“They’re in.” Kenny dropped the syringe into the sharps bucket. He looked at the doctors for a moment, then shook his head. “I gotta make sure Shannon’s okay out there, with all you in here.” He skirted out the room.

Topher looked at Jordan and Drew with hard eyes. “You two treat him good, and let me know of anything- and I mean anything -that happens, because I have to go out there and run the ER.” He left, lingering only for a moment to look at TC.

TC’s lips were no longer blue, and the monitor beside him showed a better pulse rate and oxygen saturations. The man himself was looking a little more alert too, no longer fighting the spacer and eyes cracking open.

Jordan looked down at her boyfriend. “Hey,” she said softly when TC’s eyes were fully open, and they landed on her. “You’ve got a bronchodilator going, so don’t you dare think about moving your head.”

“You need to take control of yourself, man,” Drew said with a tight smile. “That one was close.”

“Wasn’t that bad,” TC whispered hoarsely from under the mask.

“Yeah… it was that bad.” Drew removed the breathing treatment for a moment so Jordan could help TC sit up. “You had two hits of Ventolin, then you pretty much passed out. You scared the shit out of us, Tee.”

A beat passed before TC said anything again. “Passing out on the job doesn’t really inspire confidence in anyone, does it?”

“Especially when you stop breathing when you pass out. Oxygen is important for you big, dumb brain.” Jordan stroked her hand through TC’s hair. “You know you’re staying right here for the rest of the shift.”

TC opened his mouth to argue, but Drew butted in. “I’m sure Topher agrees with me. And I’m sure he won’t hesitate to order restraints if you try and leave.”

That comment had TC narrowing his eyes at Drew and Jordan. “Fine,” he said eventually, coughing a little. “But only if Dr Alexander here is my personal physician.” He turned and smiled at Jordan, who rolled her eyes.

“Actually,” she said, “I’ve got another patient to check in on.” She reached down and squeezed TC’s hand before stepping away from the stretcher. “I guess I’m going to have to leave it to Dr. Allister here to fix you right up.”

TC looked from Jordan to Drew, then back to Jordan. “You’re really going to leave me with Dr. Hardass over here?” He stage whispered.

Drew leaned down and flicked his earlobe. “Hey, watch it, or I’ll tell Topher you’re trying to leave already.”

Jordan smiled slyly at the pair. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She gave TC a long stare. “Try not to do anything dumb before I get back.”

TC just smirked in response.


End file.
